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Sunday, 3 November 2013

Online auction site eBay is facing an
international storm of outrage after it was revealed to be profiting
from the repulsive trade in Holocaust memorabilia.Items
for sale include the clothes of concentration camp victims. Among
dozens of sick souvenirs on offer last week was a striped uniform
thought to have belonged to a Polish baker who died in Auschwitz, which
was on sale for £11,200. It
was one of dozens of offensive items uncovered by a Mail on Sunday
investigation. And within hours of being alerted to the item by this
newspaper, eBay removed it from sale after conducting an ‘urgent
investigation’.

The striped pyjama-style concentration camp uniform was worn by death camp inmates

The eBay sellers proudly posted up pictures of
the uniforms the victims were forced to wear, with close ups of the
buttons and material posted for potential buyers

Among dozens of sick souvenirs on offer last week was a striped uniform thought to have belonged to a Polish baker

The internet giant apologised
and vowed to give £25,000 to a suitable charity, before removing more
than 30 other death camp souvenirs which it said had evaded its strict
vetting process. eBay, the
world’s largest online marketplace, admitted it had no idea how long it
has been helping sell items linked to genocide, but one Nazi memorabilia
dealer boasted of selling an Auschwitz victim’s uniform for thousands
of pounds on the site last year. The company receives a commission on items sold, as well as charging a listing fee.Last
night Holocaust survivors, politicians and campaigners around the globe
reacted to The Mail on Sunday’s findings with revulsion and disbelief. Eva
Clarke, 68, from Cambridge, who was born in a concentration camp in
1945 and lost 15 members of her family at Auschwitz-Birkenau, said: ‘I
am at a loss for words how a mainstream site like eBay could profit from
this.'It is so disrespectful to the victims.’Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said: ‘I applaud The Mail on Sunday for exposing this vile and repulsive trade.'Websites need to be constantly vigilant to ensure that this kind of thing is not made available.’Among the items we found for sale on eBay last week were:

A pair of shoes belonging to a death camp victim advertised for £940.

Yellow Star of David armbands singling out Jews for persecution.

A Holocaust victim’s battered suitcase priced at £492.

A £145 ‘concentration camp toothbrush’.

Meanwhile, other sites were offering gas chamber ‘handles’ adorned with swastikas from Dachau concentration camp in Germany. The
most offensive item on eBay was a complete Auschwitz prisoner uniform,
including striped shirt, trousers, cap and wooden shoes, with the seller
including an armband from Dachau along with the sale. he item was accompanied by a haunting image of a pile of garments from camp victims.The seller, Viktor
Kempf, a Ukranian now living in Vancouver, Canada, claimed the uniform
once belonged to a ‘Wolf Gierson Grundmann’ whose serial number ‘9489’
is stitched to the breast of his shirt. Mr Grundmann’s name can be found
on a database of concentration camp victims held by the Yad Vashem
centre for Holocaust research in Jerusalem. It says Mr Grundmann was born in 1912 and lists his occupation as ‘baker’.